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54th International Conference of Americanists: Symposium The Language of Space in Latin American Indigenous Languages

A symposium on 'The Language of Space in Latin American Indigenous Languages' will be held at the 54th International Conference of Americanists 15-20 July, 2012 in Vienna, Austria.

The intersection of language and spatiality is a topic that cross-cuts linguistic, ethnographic and cognitive questions. Significant work has been done in this area in linguistics and related disciplines but the topic has yet to be approached by Latin Americanists within a regional framework, asking questions about specific linguistic families or contact-based areal phenomena around the region. This symposium aims to bring together researchers working with languages from around Latin America to take stock of the diversity of spatial language, to identify commonalities and significant regional trends, and to form a network of scholars interested in future projects on this topic.

The variety of landscapes that indigenous peoples of Latin America live in (including lowland forests, highlands, deserts and coasts) prompts interesting questions about the possible relationships between linguistic systems and geography. Both on large geographical scales and at the micro-level of local activities indigenous American languages feature diverse linguistic resources for referring to space that can be approached through descriptive linguistics or through their implications for cognition or social practices. In addition, the large number of different language families and isolates in the region, many of which are under-documented in terms of their resources for talking about space, presents an opportunity to contribute to linguistic typology.

Call for Papers:

Researchers working with Latin American indigenous languages are invited to submit abstracts in this thematic area by August 31, 2011 to the ICA54 conference website:

All studies should include a new account or analysis of some previously-unstudied aspect of spatial language in the language(s) of study, but papers may take a range of analytical and thematic approaches, including but not limited to:

Abstracts should be between 1000 and 2000 characters - other guidelines are available on the online submission site: https://ica2012.univie.ac.at/home/. Abstracts will be accepted in English, Spanish or Portuguese. While the symposium is focused on Latin America, researchers working with North American languages or sign languages of the Americas are also welcome to submit. Notification of acceptance will be sent in December 2011. For any questions or clarifications please contact the organizer: Simeon Floyd, simeon.floydmpi.nl